Arizona: The only golf mecca that truly gets Daylight Savings Time

Putting out on 18 just after 6 p.m., at a time when the rest of the country’s been dark for a good hour, is one of the great, little pleasures of Arizona golf. Yes, Arizona’s figured out how to give you more sunshine too.

By ignoring the stupid “Fall Back” end of Daylight Savings Times rules that everyone else (except for Hawaii and a few kooks in Indiana) followed this weekend, Arizona allows hackers to get in a good chunk more golf. And everyone else to see the sun when they can actually get out in it.

You know, in the evenings when they’re not hurrying to work or school.

This argument that we need the sun to rise in the 6 a.m. hour has long held as much water as the argument the world is flat. Get over the farmer’s lifestyle thing already. No one’s farming in the U.S. anymore. Heck, even the farmers in Butler County Pennsylvania are running golf courses these days.

The question isn’t why has Arizona chosen to ignore this rollback to darkness. It’s why haven’t other golf meccas caught on after all these years. The Carolinas? Vegas? Since when does Vegas ever identify with the establishment? (Guess the baby stroller thing runs really deep.) California? You’ve got more destinations than anybody. Florida? Surely, even the Disney people would approve.

That extra hour of sun is priceless. You can tee off at 3 p.m. in the late fall and winter in Arizona and still get in a full 18 if the course isn’t packed. 3 p.m. It’s a lot easier to sneak away from work at 3 p.m. than it is at 9 a.m.

But Arizona’s out of synch with the rest of the country! Who cares. The rest of the country are morons. The U.S. Government is already doing its experimental changes of lengthening Daylight Savings Time by a few months each way starting in 2006. In another 20 to 25 years of countless taxpayer-funded studies, they’ll come to the same conclusion as Arizona.

Why wait for everyone else to catch up? Arizona’s already there. Let the Neanderthals live in darkness at 4:30 p.m. all winter. Some of us have some evening golf to play.

26 comments

Um.... Chris.... I think it's you that doesn't get daylight savings time...
In the fall, DST ends, which means that Arizona is now on the same page as the rest of the country.
In the spring, DST begins for the rest of the country, which gives us more sunlight in North Carolina after 7PM, so I can get in a quick 9 after work; while if I worked in AZ, I'd be SOL, since even in that sunny state, I'd be hard-pressed to get 9 holes in before 6:30AM, and sunset happens earlier in the evening. Been in AZ during the time of year that the rest of the country was on DST; got up with the sunrise at 5:30; and packed up the outdoor sporting equipment by 7:30 - NOT FUN.....

Mary, usually you'd be dead right to question any journalist's grasp of math. But on this one, you're as lost as Cindy Crawford at Harvard.

Let me break it down for you, as the kids say. When it's 6 p.m. in Arizona, it's 5 p.m. in Las Vegas, California and every other place on the West Coast. Hence when it's getting dark, it's an hour later on Zona's clocks.

And if you claim to have been playing at 7 p.m. in North Carolina this time of year, you're living in the fourth dimension. I've been in NC this time of year many times. It's already dark by 5:15, latest.

AZ is not on the west coast, Chris. The reason it's an hour later on AZ's clock at sundown in California, is because it's a different time zone - Mountain Standard Time. AZ doesn't turn the clock back in the Fall because they never turned it forward in the Spring. It gets dark an hour later in CA than in AZ - hence the time zone change - get it? Mary never said she played in NC at 7pm THIS time of year - read it again.

i agree 100% chris i live in ny and cant play this time of year but still its depressing going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark
i say the heck with falling back farmers have not needed this in 100 years

Arizona is truly great, in the fact that science there defies logic. I love getting to play golf there all day. Why, just last week, it was 2:00am, and the sun was shining bright, and I was banging balls out on the range, sweating up a storm. Why would anyone live outside Arizona is beyond me. Viva' Arizona!

Yes, yes, you are all hilarious. I stand by my facts and all the "science" behind them. When you guys get your own golf blog, I'll be sure to leave scintillating comments that deal with your facts like you've dealt with mine....

Mr. Baldwin, don't take these guys too seriously. I love your blog, it's the best on the internet. On my list of favorite things, it comes between kittens and breakfast cereal with too much sugar, i.e. Cap'n Crunch, although I don't like the sand paper mouth after eating it, but that's a different list.

As exhibit A in the question of who we should believe, I submit these jokers' screen names. Pipes, and obvious juvenile reference to the mail anatomy. Judging from the tone of the post, it's probably some guy suffering from Napoleon syndrome. ViperWerks? Umm, snakes are about as cool as ninjas, and just as mature. Sounds like the kind of guy who pops a thousand boners then flips out.

I really wish you'd talk to someone about banning IPs.

By the way, I left my real email address. Feel free to contact me if you would like to talk seriously about combining efforts on a golf blog. I would love it, as I don't have much else to do here with my 20 minutes of daily internet time in prison.

To be fair, you do say in your article "the question isn't why has Arizona chosen to ignore this rollback to darkness. It's why haven't other golf meccas caught on after all these years."

It's a good thing that's not the question, because you clearly wouldn't know the answer. (hint again: Arizona ignores the rollback because they are already there. They didn't spring forward.)

The answer to why other golf meccas haven't caught on after all these years is, um, well, because they DID spring forward and therefore they have to go back to standard time. You can't keep springing forward every year and never go back. Then you'd be in the future, like George Jetson.

If anyone is keeping track, Cindy Crawford went to Northwestern, then left after being discovered by a modeling scout. US News has NW listed as a "Most Selective" school. I'm guessing she wouldn't have been that lost at Harvard.

My mother taught me that a true friend is one that supports you no matter what. Though you are incarcerated, you are trying to help me here and I just want you to know that I appreciate it and consider you my new friend.

However, as I already have a golf blog, I'm not sure if I need a collaborator. Perhaps this could be a good opportunity for you to start your own? Are you allowed to own golf clubs in jail? Do jails have a large enough yard to make a practice hole or green? If so, then maybe you could start a website for those in jail that wish to start (or continue) playing golf. I checked to see if golfersinjail.com is available and it is (as a possible suggestion for a website name).

Good luck in the future -- if you need a reference when you get out, drop me a line.

To my naysayers:

When you travel and play golf as much as I do, you learn to appreciate the light and warmth of the sun. As such, I have done extensive study on the features of the sun and its effects on the environment and human nature. It would be very possible for California, Arizona, Florida, Michigan and New York (five of the largest golf states) to adhere to Standard Time year long and so not rollback in the fall thus giving the majority of golfers that extra needed hour in the fall and winter.

maybe Cindy Crawford would be lost at Harvard, I mean, maybe she's never been there. I've never been there and if you plunked me down in the middle of campus and told me to go to the law library, I'd be lost. And I don't even have a mole and my legs aren't that hot. I think Harvard is a few hours ahead of Arizona, when are they going to get a clue?

When you travel and play golf as much as I do, you learn to appreciate the light and warmth of the sun. As such, I have done extensive study on the features of the sun and its effects on the environment and human nature. It would be very possible for California, Arizona, Florida, Michigan and New York (five of the largest golf states) to adhere to Standard Time year long and so not rollback in the fall thus giving the majority of golfers that extra needed hour in the fall and winter.

Enjoy your time in the dark, fellas...."

um, like everyone else has already pointed out--right now IS standard time, not in the summer. It is possible you have cemented yourself as the biggest tool on the internet with your repeated postings trying to defend your stupidity. It is in the SUMMER that Arizone differs. Right now, the ENTIRE US is on the same time. I'm not sure whether this is funny or just sad. Can't wait for the mea culpa when you realize that you have become the laughingstock of the internet. Just watch the page views go up on this. The link is spreading like wildfire. Nothing like the internet to expose your stupidity to the world. Congrats!!

DST is during the summer! It starts during the spring and ENDS during the fall. So throughout the winter, Arizona is on the SAME time as everyone else. And Arizona is not in the same time zone as Cali, retard.